In a large apartment in New York City, a young girl was just waking up, she was about sixteen years old, with long raven colored hair, and green eyes, many men were attracted to her, but she didn’t care, she was all about her job, and she had a very big job. Besides, she already had a boyfriend.

She walked into her bathroom and looked in the mirror, the same old face stared back at her, same hair, same eyes, same everything, including the little gold locket that hung around her neck, the only thing she had of the parents she never knew, the little locket, that she could never get open no matter how hard she tried, all she could get from it was her name, engraved on the front in fancy print, ‘CLAUDIA’

Suddenly, the phone next to her bed began to ring. She picked it up and pushed the talk button. “What’s up?” she said into the phone.

“I have another assignment for you, are you up to it?” said a deep voice on the other end.

Claudia smiled “I always am Dunsworth, I always am.”
.

**************
Giuseppe Leoni led the good life. Everyone said so, he had money, power, and an island paradise with a beach, a 20 room mansion complete with two hot tubs, two kitchens, a movie theater, a bowling alley, and a bar, he could have anything he wanted with just the snap of his finger.

He was in his office that day, with five of his servants. Two blondes, one redhead, one with light brown, and one very giggly one with black hair whom he didn’t recognize, but then again, he had new servants every week, and this one was exceptionally beautiful. “Mister Leoni” said his secretary over the intercom, he chuckled and pushed the button, “yes Claire?” he chortled,

“Mister Lloyd is here to see you” said Claire.

Leoni smiled, Mr. Lloyd was the man who would make him rich, well, richer at least. He had been waiting for him to come for a while now. Ever since he had first come in too look at some of his weapon designs, he knew this was a big day for his company. He got up straightened his tie and sat back down with his servants. “Now my friends” he said stroking the chin of the giggly one, for a second, she seemed to have a look of disgust on her face, but it was quickly replaced by more giggling, so Leoni decided to disregard it. “Today you’re going to see what an amazing businessman I am, doesn’t that sound exciting?”

“Yes Mr. Leoni” they all said in unison, as they’d been paid to do whenever he addressed them.

He laughed triumphantly, “of course it is, now give me a back rub sweetie” he said to one of the blondes, who immediately began to rub his back.

Five minutes later, a shallow faced man with dark skin and black hair entered the office. He took one look at the servants, smiled and sighed, “You really do live the good life Giuseppe, I wish mine was as good.”

Leoni wasn’t interested in hearing Lloyd whine more about how terrible his life was, about how he had to leave his country after breaking serious laws, to avoid jail or even death. Or about how he hated his new American name that he had to take when he went into hiding. In his opinion, having to sign all his papers “James Edmund Lloyd” was a sign of true shame.

“Enough small talk, let’s get down to business, now Mr. Lloyd, have you made your decision?”

“I have” Lloyd said simply, Leoni felt sweat running down his neck as he waited anxiously for Lloyd’s decision, “I have decided to buy from you”

Leoni could have kissed him, but he knew better, so he simply smiled and clapped his hands together. “Wonderful, just wonderful, now, we must discuss the price range,”

Lloyd looked as though he’d been expecting that to come up “I will pay you 4,000,000 American dollars”

Leoni chuckled “that seems a bit low for such wonderful machinery, don’t you think, I was thinking more in the price range of 10-12,000,000 dollars”

Lloyd’s face was first expressionless, then thoughtful. After a minute of silence, he spoke up, “Alright, how about this, I will pay you 6,000,000 dollars, and I’ll recommend you to some of my uh” pause, “friends, how does that sound?”

Leoni realized this was the best deal he would get with him, and anyway, he had to admit, this was a pretty good deal, and so, the deal was signed and sealed with a handshake.

*************

After Lloyd left, Leoni sent his servants away; he wanted some time alone to laminate on his success.

It took him a few moments to realize that he was in fact, not alone. The giggly servant had remained in the room and was staring directly at him with a big smile on her face. Leoni chuckled “Now sweetie, I thought I told you to leave”

The girl just giggled, walked up to him, and started to massage his back. He was in no way bothered by this, in fact, he was starting to really like this girl. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere Mr. Leoni, but you are,” Leoni chuckled more at this.

“Oh and where might that be?” he asked in a playful tone, suddenly, she grabbed his head with one hand on his chin, and one his head. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what was coming next.

“Straight to hell” she said, and with a snap of the neck, Leoni was dead.

Claudia stood back for a moment before running to the window; she could see the chopper returning to take her home. When it neared enough, a rope ladder was dropped. Claudia took a few steps back, and then broke into, a run; she jumped out the window and reached for the ladder. She grabbed it, and began climbing, suddenly, she noticed that the rope she was climbing was starting to fray. She tried to climb faster, but it was too late. The rope gave, and Claudia was left plummeting towards earth. She closed her eyes and waited for the end, but it never came, suddenly, she felt something cold and hard in her hands, she opened her eyes to find that it was the chopper, but this made no sense, she had just been falling to the ground, how could she have gotten a hold of the chopper, when she had been falling?

She climbed into the chopper and sat down. They’ll be finding him now. She thought to herself. Then her phone began to ring, she reached down for it, turned it on and put it up to her ear. “Yeah?”

“Successful as usual, no one will be hearing from Giuseppe Leoni anymore, that’s for sure”

“I knew it; you really are the best teen assassin in world Claudia, that’s why you get all the good assignments”

“What do you mean, did you want this one” Claudia asked, she heard Lydia chuckle on the other end of the phone.

“No, not me, Andrea”

Claudia smirked at this; Andrea had hated Claudia since day one, because Dunsworth always seemed to like Claudia more. It was not unknown to anyone that Andrea would love to kill her, but since she was Dunsworth’s favorite, she never tried.

“Well, I’m on my way back now, so, I’ll deal with her later.”

“Okay, see you later Claudia” said Lydia.

“Later Lyds” said Claudia as she hung up the phone and stared out the window; her thoughts drifting once again back to the ladder incident. She still wondered how it had happened, actually, she wondered how all the strange incidents before them had happened, they seemed to follow her, like an insect that she tried to swat at, but would never go away, never leave her alone.